Siasia ‘won’t rely’ on foreign-based players for Olympics

Nigeria’s U23 soccer squad, the ‘Dream Team VI’ will not rely on foreign-based professionals, Coach Samson Siasia has said.

Siasia, who led the team to win the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics, revealed to TheCable that he would start building his team from now based on available players.

“If by Monday, the players invited are not here, they should forget it. We need serious-minded people because we are not depending on the foreign based players for they may not come.”

“We have to start working with the ones on ground now for another two or three months so as to have something good to use for the Olympics. For now, we are okay with the ones here.

“We are writing letters to almost 30 different players. You know that the club will decide who will come and who will not come.”

Siasia said he was prepared for the eventuality of not getting the foreign based stars because of the rules.

“Actually, FIFA in their book said it is not compulsory for the clubs to release their players for the Olympics. So, those are the rules. It is not a FIFA calendar. You can only negotiate with them. If they allow the players to come, then it’s fine.

“But we don’t have any guarantee that any of the players will come or that the clubs will release them so we just have to be very careful on how we handle that.

“We are just waiting for responses from the club directors on the period of time in August that they can release their players. With that, we will know that we can invite such players to come and play for us. That’s what we are doing right now.”

On overage players, Siasia said: “I never said anything about overage players. I keep saying it will depend on what we have on ground. That will determine the kind of overage players that we will pick.

“I said I have some names written down, I never mentioned those names. So, I have to wait till that time. We are looking at the position where an overage player will come and help us.

“We just can’t say, ‘this guy, come’. Or ‘that one, come’, just because he is overage. Where is he going to play? What position?

“We need to bring in new players that we don’t even know from anywhere to show them up too, so that we can have players that can last for a very long period of time.

“They know their own overage players, which is good. We don’t know. We are trying to put up a team that will determine which overage players we will want to bring.

“They know the areas in which they need those players. So they can announce those names. Announcing those names won’t scare us. It’s not about one individual; it’s about the team.”

Siasia insisted that Nigeria will not be scared of overage players in opponents’s team.

“We’ve played against even bigger calibre of players than Zlatan Ibrahimovic before. We played against Lionel Messi twice in the finals. The likes of Angel Di Maria and those big players.

“So, a name is not what we are scared of. Are they going to have a very strong team to play against us? We are trying to put up a team that will hold its own at any given time.

“We need to make those decisions on who and who to pick. That is why I don’t want to jump and start mentioning some names and later if those names are not there, they will be so disappointed.

“I have to be very sure of what I am doing. When the time comes we will know those names.”

Asked about the possibility of Chelsea star John Obi Mikel making the team, he said: “I guess Mikel Obi missed out on the last one, so he wants to make up for it now. Not even that; last couple of games, he’s been doing very well too. The last game he played for the Super Eagles, he played very good game.

“So, if he wants to be part of it, he is welcome to be part of it. But like I said, we have to look at the position we need that kind of help for before we know what to do.

“I am happy that those guys like Onazi want to play and within the age bracket. We have people here whom he has to compete with. What about getting the right players to play?

“We are not going to look at players just because they are from the Super Eagles or because they are still under that age bracket. What about those that actually made the team to be what it is today? So, they have to compete with those guys to make sure they have the chance to play.”

Siasia confirmed the submission of a 60-man list to FIFA for the championship.

“Yes, that’s true. A 60-man list has to be submitted to FIFA. After tonight, if your name is not on the list, that is it. That is why we try to put as many names as we can, so that we have time to know which players in Europe will be allowed to come.

“You see, we can only remove from this list, we cannot add. So, it’s better for us to have, if its 100, let us have them there. On that day, we will know the ones to pick from.

“See what happened to us in Senegal. Some players didn’t show up. We had just 17 players to play, so we have to learn from our lesson.”